Techniques to modify content and view content on a mobile device

ABSTRACT

A computer-based method for rendering modified graphical content is disclosed. The graphical content includes a plurality of cells. The method includes receiving the graphical content with metadata modifying the graphical content, rendering the graphical content upon a screen according to the metadata, and receiving user input. The method also includes in response to the user input, progressing through at least a subset of the cells, wherein the progressing includes moving a camera view from cell to cell in the at least a subset, each of the cells in the at least a subset being displayed as a focus point with surrounding area being adjusted in opacity according to the metadata.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 12/836,424 filed Jul. 14, 2010 and entitled, “TECHNIQUES TOMODIFY CONTENT AND VIEW CONTENT ON MOBILE DEVICES,” which claims thebenefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/225,366, filed Jul. 14,2009 and entitled, “SYSTEMS AND METHODS PROVIDING TECHNIQUES TO MODIFYCONTENT AND VIEW CONTENT ON MOBILE DEVICES,” the disclosures of whichare incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND

Comic books, graphic novels, and other graphic media are quite popularamong some readers. Some graphic media include sequential, rectangularcells where the story is told as the sequence of cells progresses fromright to left. More modern forms of the media often include cells thathave irregularly shaped boundaries and/or arrange the cells in irregularpatterns upon the page that do not progress from right to left.

Recently, there have been attempts to adapt comic book reader interfacesto handheld devices, such as the iPhone™, available from Apple, Inc.Currently, most comic book readers on the iPhone™ do the same thing.They have a series of sequential images that are cropped from a comicbook, and the user reads the comics in the same way that a user browsesphotos in the photo library. In other words, a user drags his or herfinger across the display screen to go left or right to an adjacentsquare located to the left or right. However, such a technique is notsuitable for a page that has irregularly-shaped cells and/or anirregular arrangement of cells. Furthermore, the cropping andrearranging of cells often destroys the look and feel that was intendedby the author. A more intuitive and less destructive comic book readinginterface is, therefore, desirable.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Various embodiments of the invention are directed to systems, methods,and computer program products for editing existing content to be viewedon mobile device screens. In one example, a computer-based tool allows adesigner to edit content so that the content is more conveniently andintuitively consumed on small screens (e.g., screens of mobile devices).In one embodiment, there is an application for providing metadata topre-existing media content where the application allows a designer (orother user) to indicate salient visual features for portions of visualcontent. The application uses vision algorithms to automaticallygenerate other kinds of metadata based on the positions of the salientfeatures and other characteristics of the graphical content. Thedesigner would then approve or modify the generated metadata.Additionally or alternatively, any of the metadata can be manuallyentered by the designer using the computer-based tool.

In another aspect, various embodiments are directed to systems, methods,and computer program products for viewing graphic and/or textual mediaon small screens. In one example, a viewing application receivesgraphical content and metadata (such as that produced using the tooldescribed above) and renders the graphical content according to themetadata. For instance, for each portion that has a salient feature(e.g., each cell on a page of a comic book), there is a pan, a rotation,and a magnification associated therewith. When a selected portion is thefocus, other portions that may appear on the screen can be modified toincrease focus on the first portion (e.g., by adjusting opacity of theportions that are not the focus). A first screen may show many portionsfrom which a user can select a portion to view. When a user hasselected, and is viewing, a particular portion, the user can move to aprevious or subsequent portion by, e.g., a finger swipe on a displayscreen. A camera view on the first portion then moves to the nextselected portion as the next selected portion is displayed according tothe metadata.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of the present invention in order that the detaileddescription of the invention that follows may be better understood.Additional features and advantages of the invention will be describedhereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. Itshould be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conceptionand specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis formodifying or designing other structures for carrying out the samepurposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by thoseskilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart fromthe spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appendedclaims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic ofthe invention, both as to its organization and method of operation,together with further objects and advantages will be better understoodfrom the following description when considered in connection with theaccompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, thateach of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration anddescription only and is not intended as a definition of the limits ofthe present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference isnow made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, in which:

An example embodiment of a viewing application, being run on a handhelddevice and rendering content upon a display screen, is shown in FIGS.1-9;

FIGS. 10-16 show a second example of the viewing application usingdifferent graphical content;

FIG. 17 is an illustration of exemplary computer-based tool adaptedaccording to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 18 is an illustration of an exemplary method, according to oneembodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 19 illustrates an example computer system adapted according to oneembodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An example embodiment of a viewing application, being run on a handhelddevice and rendering content upon a display screen, is shown in FIGS.1-9. FIG. 1 shows handheld device 101 with display screen 102 (in thiscase, a touch-screen that receives user input through user touching ofthe screen). Control features 111, 112, 113 and 190 are rendered uponscreen 102 and are described further below. The view shown in FIG. 1includes cells 121-126, which in this example are individually viewableportions of the page. Also included in the view are text boxes 131-138.

An example of a handheld device that can be used in some embodiments isthe iPhone™ by Apple Inc., though other handheld devices can be used aswell. However, not all embodiments are limited to handheld devices, assome embodiments use a larger display screen for rendering graphicalcontent. Furthermore, devices without touch screens can be adapted foruse in some embodiments, by, e.g., mapping keys to control features andframes. Additionally, some embodiments may be adapted for renderinggraphical content upon a screen of a tablet computer, such as an iPad™from Apple, Inc.

Typically it is difficult to come up with a pattern for reading a pagesuch as that shown in FIG. 1 on a mobile phone. In this view, the textis too small to view, and the cells are shaped irregularly and arearranged in a sequential fashion that follows their irregular shapes.Various embodiments of the present invention are different fromconventional approaches and provide a better way to render graphicalcontent, as shown in FIGS. 2-9.

By selecting next 111, the user can step through the comic book. FIG. 2shows a view after the user selects next 111. The transition (not shown)includes an animated zoom and pan into the upper left hand corner of thepage shown in FIG. 1. Cell 121 is the focus of FIG. 2, and it is placedand zoomed according to metadata associated with the graphical content(as explained in more detail below). When the user clicks next 111again, the whole page pans and rotates to present the content shown inFIG. 3, where cell 122 is the focus. In FIG. 3, cells 121 and 123, whichare not the focus of the view of FIG. 3, are faded out slightly.

In one example, the fading effect is implemented by rendering asemi-transparent, or semi-opaque, mask on top of the cells that are notthe focus. Applying a mask may be preferable in some embodiments, sinceit may not be necessary to modify the underlying existing content when amask can be applied on top of the content. However, some embodiments mayinclude modifying the content itself.

As the user continues to go from cell-to-cell, similar positioning,zooming, panning, rotating (if applicable) and fading are performed togive the user an appealing feel—one that is organic and intuitive. Whenthe user selects next 111 again, the view shown in FIG. 4 is rendered.In FIG. 4, the text box 135 is enlarged and moved to make it easier toread. FIGS. 2-9 show the views that are rendered as the user selectsnext 111 to view all cells on the page. The cell that is the focus ofFIG. 7 is actually a landscape screen—wider than it is tall—and theapplication assumes that the user is going to rotate the device so thatthe user will be able to view cell 125 in a more natural, larger way. Asthe user selects next 111 again, the next view is portrait (FIG. 8), andthe application assumes that the user is going to rotate the device backto its portrait view. As the user walks through a page like this, theidea is that the user, as part of experiencing the content, will rotatethe phone back and forth as the user goes from cell to cell.

The application shown in FIGS. 1-9 addresses a problem in current comicbook readers. A comic is created as an artistic, creative expressionoften without awareness that it might be consumed on a device with asmall fixed-size screen, so sometimes the content items are wider thanthey are tall and sometimes they are taller than they are wide. Variousembodiments of the present invention make an effective use of the screenso that the content is visually perceivable and the text is readable.

Referring back to FIG. 1, there is control 113. At any point, a user canzoom out the entire page (i.e., go back to the view shown in FIG. 1) byselecting control 113. Furthermore, the various cells 121-126 areselectable items where a user can select one of the cells, and theviewing application will take the user directly into that cell and stilldo an appealing transition with a camera view that moves until theappropriate placement, size, rotation, and fading are rendered. So someusers might actually choose to read the comic in that way, by steppingin and out of the cells.

While not easily shown in FIG. 1-9, various embodiments support commonlyaccepted touch-based gestures. Similar to current viewers, the viewingapplication of FIGS. 1-9 transitions back and forth between cells with afinger swipe from one side to the next. Thus, finger swipes may be usedinstead of, or in addition to, control features 111 and 112. In thepresent case, a finger swipe from one side of screen 102 to the other iseffective to cause a transition to an adjacent cell even though the pageis arranged substantially vertically (rather than horizontally). In thisway, various embodiments can be adapted for use with any of a variety ofarbitrary shapes and arrangements. Furthermore, in many embodiments, theorientation of gestures are adjusted to correspond to orientation of thescreen. Thus, a side-to-side finger swipe is still a side-to-side fingerswipe whether the device is arranged portrait-style or landscape-style.

FIGS. 10-16 show a second example using different graphical content. InFIGS. 10-16, the cells are rectangles and are, therefore, more regularthan the cells of FIGS. 1-9. FIG. 10 shows the whole page, where a usercan select a particular cell and where the user can return by selectingcontrol 113. FIGS. 11-16 show a sequential transition among the cells,including at least one portrait-landscape-portrait transition, andextensive use of zooming.

Automatic portrait-landscape-portrait transitioning is unconventional,but provides a good use of screen space. However, such automatictransitioning may not be preferred by all users. Some embodimentsinclude a control, such as control 190 of FIG. 1, allowing a user todisable automatic portrait-landscape-portrait transitioning. In suchcase, the application may split a landscape cell into multiple portraitviews, or split a portrait cell into multiple landscape views.

In another aspect, some embodiments include a computer-based tool thatallows a designer, developer, author, artist, or other user to addmetadata to existing media content to prepare the media content fordisplay according to the concepts discussed above. There are variety ofdifferent types of metadata that can be added to existing content, andthe present examples list a few. The original image has a sequence ofviews—cells in the case of comic books—that the end-user will perceive,and there is metadata associated with each of those viewpoints. Onemetadata item is referred to as a viewpoint, which includes a centerpoint of that view, a magnification, and a rotation. Another metadataitem includes a sequence of polygons to adjust opacity of items thatsurround a given cell, referred to as polygonal overlays, and they formthe basis of the masks.

Yet another example of metadata includes an indication of the visuallymost salient point in that cell. Often, the visually most salient pointis determined by a developer or other user, who uses intuition or othertechnique to decide which point is most likely the most salient toend-users. The viewing application supports random access into any cellby tapping directly onto a portion of the cell to zoom right into it. Soin order to support that feature, viewing applications receive theindications of salient points because the cells can actually beoverlapping. In order to know which cell an end-user selects, it isassumed that users are most likely to tap on the visually most salientcharacteristic of one of those cells (e.g., the main figure's face).When a user selects a point on the screen, the viewing application looksfor the closest salient point and goes to the cell associated with thatclosest salient point. The computer based tool of various embodimentsallows a user to designate salient points in the various portions of thepage.

FIG. 17 is an illustration of exemplary computer-based tool 1700,adapted according to one embodiment of the invention. In the exampleembodiment, computer-based tool 1700 includes interface 1701, where foreach page a user defines at least the viewpoint, the polygonal overlay,and the salient points. In this example, the interface includesrectangle 1702, which is sized to correspond to the screen of a givenhandheld device (e.g., an iPhone™). The user drags rectangle 1702 aroundon the screen, rotates it, and resizes it to define a given viewpoint.Interface 1701 also provides polygon tool 1703 to draw polygons to coverthe portions of the view that are the parts that the user wants tode-emphasize in order to define the polygonal overlay. Interface 1701also supports a user's selection (by mouse, touchscreen or otherwise) inorder to specify the salient portion of the screen that will be used fornavigation. The user defines the metadata for each of the views or cellsmanually in this way.

One issue with the embodiment described above is that it can be somewhattime consuming because these views can be arbitrarily shaped andarranged with different angles and different sizes. For instance, itmight take a relatively long time for a human user to draw the polygonaloverlay to cover up one of these strangely shaped lines or triangularviews that can be part of the source image. Another embodiment usesautomated image processing techniques to increase efficiency. In such anexample, interface 1701 allows the user to select the salient points forthe viewpoints (or for a single viewpoint if the user prefers to goviewpoint-by-viewpoint). Tool 1700 includes computer vision to analyzethe image, looking for the boxes and lines and likely interesting areasand it makes a best estimation as to the viewpoint metadata item and thepolygonal overlay metadata item. Tool 1700 makes a best estimation as tothe best view and as to the polygons that should be generated in orderto hide the uninteresting parts. In many cases, the image processing hasa particularly good chance of working because, for many kinds ofcontent, such as comics and other visually-oriented books, such contenttypically has white backgrounds or solid or simple gradient backgroundswith lines that typically follow the black lines that define the area aswell. It is possible to do computer vision or image processingalgorithms that identify those lines with high accuracy. While theexamples herein mention comic book material for the underlying content,it is noted that any of a variety of graphical content can be modifiedby, or viewed by, various embodiments of the invention.

When the first estimate is acceptable, the user indicates acceptance andmoves the process on to the next task (e.g., moving on to the nextcell). If the user does not think that the computer's estimate isacceptable, then the user can manually manipulate the view and/or thepolygons. In such a case the computer has already identified the linesand the polygons and the underlying image, giving the human user more towork with in defining the viewpoint and/or the polygonal overlay. Infact, some embodiments include a snap-to feature to automatically snapviews on polygons to the next best item, so when a user drags a view,tool 1700 snaps it to the next set of lines. In some instance, thecomputer might get it all right, and the user might just verify thecomputer's estimates. Thus, for simpler source images, the automaticembodiment has the potential to be quite efficient. For more complex anddifficult source images, the process might simply be manual in theworst-case scenario.

FIG. 18 is an illustration of exemplary method 1800 according to oneembodiment of the invention. Method 1800 can be performed, for example,by a computer-based tool to add metadata to graphical content. Thegraphical content is divided into a plurality of portions (e.g., cells).As explained above, the user indicates the salient points of the cells,and the tool makes a best estimate of other types of metadata items,such as polygonal overlays, rotation, magnification, and position (atblocks 1801-1803). The user can then accept the computer's metadata,reject some, or reject all of the metadata at block 1804. For metadatathat is rejected, the user is given an opportunity to modify the itemsmanually at block 1805. The tool associates metadata with each of thecells and makes the content available to end-users (e.g., by publishingto an Internet resource) at blocks 1806-1807.

Other types of metadata may be indicated manually and/or generatedautomatically by the computer-based tool. An additional type of metadatacan refer to pixels of a cell that correspond to text, whether the textis by itself, in a balloon, or included in another arbitrary shape. Suchdata can be used to “pop-out” the text, moving it and/or making itlarger to increase readability. For instance, in some situations, text(at least in its original form) may be too small to read on a handhelddevice screen. Various embodiments identify where the text is locatedand magnify the text. The degree of magnification can be determined froma combination of design and end-user preference. In one example, anend-user might prefer fourteen-point font, so the text is marked to bemagnified to fourteen-point font by the viewing application.Additionally or alternatively, there may be a default where the text ismarked to magnify it ten or twenty percent or thirty percent to make itstill larger and still visually more salient.

One variation of popping out the text is, instead of popping the textout automatically at the viewing application, allowing the end-user toselect the text to pop the text out. Some embodiments may add othervisual schemes to enhance aesthetic or artistic effect by, e.g.,enlarging text with a bounce or other animated sequence make theexperience more like video. In fact, any of a variety of visual effectscan be added to the underlying content through use of metadata.

In one example, the images are preprocessed to generate views whereinthe text, itself is the focus (e.g., as in FIG. 4). In other examples,the text is magnified within a graphic cell. In some instances wherethere are multiple text boxes, magnifying them all in place would causethem to overlap. One such solution is to add metadata that specifiesparts of the image that a given text box should not cover.

When implemented via computer-executable instructions, various elementsof embodiments of the present invention are in essence the software codedefining the operations of such various elements. The executableinstructions or software code may be obtained from a readable medium(e.g., a hard drive media, optical media, RAM, EPROM, EEPROM, tapemedia, cartridge media, flash memory, ROM, memory stick, and/or thelike). In fact, readable media can include any medium that can storeinformation.

FIG. 19 illustrates an example computer system 1900 adapted according toone embodiment of the present invention. That is, computer system 1900comprises an example system on which embodiments of the presentinvention may be implemented (such as a viewing application or a tool tomodify graphical content). Central processing unit (CPU) 1901 is coupledto system bus 1902. CPU 1901 may be any general purpose or specializedpurpose CPU. However, the present invention is not restricted by thearchitecture of CPU 1901 as long as CPU 1901 supports the inventiveoperations as described herein. CPU 1901 may execute the various logicalinstructions according to embodiments of the present invention. Forexample, one or more CPUs, such as CPU 1901, may execute machine-levelinstructions according to the exemplary operational flows describedabove regarding the respective operation of the viewer applicationand/or the content-modifying tool.

Computer system 1900 also preferably includes random access memory (RAM)1903, which may be SRAM, DRAM, SDRAM, or the like. In this example,computer system 1900 uses RAM 1903 to buffer 302 of FIG. 3. Computersystem 1900 preferably includes read-only memory (ROM) 1904 which may bePROM, EPROM, EEPROM, or the like. RAM 1903 and ROM 1904 hold user andsystem data and programs, as is well known in the art.

Computer system 1900 also preferably includes input/output (I/O) adapter1905, communications adapter 1911, user interface adapter 1908, anddisplay adapter 1909. I/O adapter 1905, user interface adapter 1908,and/or communications adapter 1911 may, in certain embodiments, enable auser to interact with computer system 1900 in order to inputinformation, such as indicating salient features (e.g., with respect toa tool to modify the graphical content) or select a cell to view (e.g.,with respect to a viewing application).

I/O adapter 1905 preferably connects to storage device(s) 1906, such asone or more of hard drive, compact disc (CD) drive, floppy disk drive,tape drive, etc. to computer system 1900. The storage devices may beutilized when RAM 1903 is insufficient for the memory requirementsassociated with storing media data. Communications adapter 1911 ispreferably adapted to couple computer system 1900 to network 1912 (e.g.,the Internet, a LAN, a cellular network, etc.). User interface adapter1908 couples user input devices, such as keyboard 1913, pointing device1907, and microphone 1914, a touch screen (such as 102 of FIG. 1) and/oroutput devices, such as speaker(s) 1915 to computer system 1900. Displayadapter 1909 is driven by CPU 1901 to control the display on displaydevice 1910 to, for example, display the media as it is played.

While FIG. 19 shows a general-purpose computer, it should be noted thatthe exact configuration of a portion of a system according to variousembodiments may be slightly different. For example, devices that run aviewing application according to one or more embodiments may be any kindof processor-based device that includes a small screen, such as a cellphone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and/or the like.Additionally, devices that run metadata tool applications according toone or more embodiments may be any kind of processor-based device, suchas a personal computer, a server-type computer, a handheld device, andthe like. Moreover, embodiments of the present invention may beimplemented on application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or verylarge scale integrated (VLSI) circuits. In fact, persons of ordinaryskill in the art may utilize any number of suitable structures capableof executing logical operations according to the embodiments of thepresent invention.

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described indetail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, thescope of the present application is not intended to be limited to theparticular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, compositionof matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification. Asone of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from thedisclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture,compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing orlater to be developed that perform substantially the same function orachieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodimentsdescribed herein may be utilized according to the present invention.Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within theirscope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter,means, methods, or steps.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-based method for rendering modifiedgraphical content, the graphical content including a plurality of cells,the method comprising: rendering the graphical content, whichconcurrently renders the plurality of cells, upon a screen according tometadata that modifies the graphical content, wherein each cell includes(i) a border surrounding the cell and (ii) one or more visual featureswithin the cell; defining, by a processor, polygonal overlay metadatafor each cell in at least a subset of the plurality of cells, whereinthe polygonal overlay metadata includes a sequence of polygons defininga surrounding area for said each cell and the surrounding area of eachcell overlies at least one other cell including the visual featureswithin the at least one other cell; rendering, under control of theprocessor, the sequence of polygons, in accordance with the polygonaloverlay metadata, such that for each cell the defined surrounding areais adjusted in opacity and deemphasizes the at least one other celllocated within the surrounding area of said each cell with respect tosalient features within said each cell; receiving user input; and inresponse to the user input, progressing through the at least a subset ofthe cells, wherein the progressing includes moving a camera view fromcell to cell, each of the cells in the at least a subset being displayedas a focus point with the surrounding area of each of the cell displayedas a focus point being adjusted in opacity according to the polygonaloverlay metadata, wherein the metadata specifies the polygonal overlaymetadata.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the rendering comprises:receiving user input selecting a portion of the graphical content;comparing the selected portion of the graphical content to the salientfeatures in the metadata; selecting a first cell of the plurality ofcells based upon the comparing; in response to selecting the first cell,displaying the first cell as a focus point by adjusting opacity of oneor more other cells of the plurality of cells according to the polygonaloverlay metadata; receiving a second user input; comparing informationassociated with the second user input to the salient features in themetadata; selecting a second cell of the plurality of cells based uponthe comparing; and in response to selecting the second cell, displayingthe second cell as a focus point by adjusting opacity of the other cellsof the plurality of cells according to the polygonal overlay metadata,the other cells including at least the first cell.
 3. A computer programproduct having a non-transitory computer readable medium having computerprogram logic recorded thereon for rendering modified graphical content,the graphical content including a plurality of cells, said computerprogram product comprising: code for rendering the graphical content,which concurrently renders the plurality of cells, upon a screenaccording to metadata, the metadata modifying the graphical content, themetadata specifying a viewpoint for each of the cells and a polygonaloverlay for each of the cells, wherein each cell includes (i) a bordersurrounding the cell and (ii) one or more visual features within thecell; code for defining polygonal overlay metadata for each cell in atleast a subset of the plurality of cells, wherein the polygonal overlaymetadata includes a sequence of polygons defining a surrounding area forsaid each cell and the surrounding area of each cell overlies at leastone other cell including the visual features within the at least oneother cell; code for rendering the sequence of polygons, in accordancewith the polygonal overlay metadata, such that for each cell the definedsurrounding area is adjusted in opacity and deemphasizes the at leastone other cell located within the surrounding area of said each cellwith respect to salient features within said each cell; code forreceiving user input; and code for progressing through the at least asubset of the cells, in response to the user input, wherein theprogressing includes moving a camera view from cell to cell, each of thecells in the at least a subset being displayed as a focus point with thesurrounding area of each of the cell displayed as a focus point beingadjusted in opacity according to the polygonal overlay metadata, whereinthe metadata specifies the polygonal overlay metadata.
 4. Acomputer-based method for associating metadata with graphical content,wherein the graphical content is divided into a plurality of cells, themethod comprising: associating metadata with the graphical content, themetadata describing salient visual features within each of the cells,the salient visual features being previously identified by a user asbeing salient, wherein each cell includes (i) a border surrounding thecell and (ii) includes one or more visual features within the cell, anda surrounding area of each cell overlies at least one other cellincluding the visual features within the at least one other cell; usingcomputer vision algorithms to process the graphical content, includingconcurrently rendering the plurality of cells, and associate thefollowing metadata item with the graphical content: polygonal overlaymetadata for each of the cells, wherein said polygonal overlay metadatafor a first cell in said each of the cells specifies a sequence ofpolygons defining a polygonal mask for adjusting opacity of areas aroundsaid first cell such that said the surrounding area of the first cellincluding at least one other cell within the surrounding area isde-emphasized with respect to said salient visual features of the firstcell; and providing the user with an opportunity to reject and manuallychange at least one of the metadata items.
 5. The method of claim 4further comprising: receiving user input indicating the followingmetadata to be associated with the graphical content: pixelscorresponding to text within each cell; and areas of each cell not to beobstructed by text.
 6. The method of claim 4 further comprising one ormore of the following: sending the graphical content, metadata, andmetadata items to a viewing application to be rendered for an end-user;and publishing the graphical content, metadata, and metadata items to anetwork resource to be downloaded by end-users.
 7. The method of claim 4in which the viewpoint metadata comprises: center point, magnification,and rotation for each of the cells.